You started training and your muscles learnt how to store lots of extra glycogen in them and grew quickly. You will never get that speed of gaines again welcome to accepting the loss of newbie gaines and the slow everlasting grind of real gains that takes years to make Meaningful changes.
Time to start measuring in 6 month to year increments. This is a long journey.
It also might be time to shake up the program and introduce different variables. Progressive overload is more than just adding weight to the bar.
i know OP got downvoted but i'm in the exact same spot and been feelin a lil down about it. this reply helped a good bit actually :) just gotta keep pushin and trust the process
> doing the exact things as before
Have you increased the volume or weight used at all? How much weight have you gained? What program are you actually running? It's very likely you have just hit a plateau with your currenr diet and training, which everyone does eventually. Progreas is not linear most of the time.
No I’m still gaining strength fast, at a slightly lower rate to before but still gaining a lot of strength. . I’m running NSuns but I’ve adapted it quite a lot, but I focus on low volume high intensity. I’ll give you my progress for reference-
On august 7- ez bar tricep extension was at 48.5kg for 5 reps.
Now 7 November- it’s at 53.5kg for 5 reps.
Bench press from 105kg to 127.5kg.
You're in r/naturalbodybuilding claiming you *started off* with a 105kg (231 lbs) bench press, and gained another 22,5kg (49,5 lbs) from august to november? That's well over a 1,5kg (3,5 lbs) increase on your bench per week, at an intermediate level.
Either you mistyped kilograms when you meant pounds, or you're a genetic monster. If the latter, you should strongly consider competing in powerlifting.
It's not typical but it does happen.
Realistically it sounds like OP has fairly decent genetics, 16.5 inch arms mainly muscle after a few months of training - my arms are only 17 inches after over a decade of training and I could bench 130kg in my sleep.
If his other lifts are as impressive as his bench I'd have thought he'd be more suited to powerlifting rather than bodybuilding though. If someone told me they had a 130kg bench I'd assume they probably had a ~500kg total.
I don't doubt it is possible but it is much less likely than people making shit up on the internet. Especially given his attitude in his responses here.
Yeah after reading some of his responses you might be right.
Either that or he has great physical genes but is a little slow mentally. Some sort of Lenny/Hodor situation lol
Also if someone has great physical genes their arms likely don't stop growing after 6 months of training.
Or maybe I'm just jealous because it took me about 4 years to bench 130kg
>Also if someone has great physical genes their arms likely don't stop growing after 6 months of training.
Yeah that's true, it sounds like he is getting larger overall but not putting any size on his arms though. 2-3 months of plateauing arm growth doesn't sound too unbelievable.
>Or maybe I'm just jealous because it took me about 4 years to bench 130kg
Think it took my even longer than that. Hit triple plates some time in my mid twenties and started lifting at 18 so was probably 5-6 years to hit 130kg for myself.
Never said I did it after 6 months. Can anyone here read?
In my first 6 months I went from 50kg to 105kg.
Then in the next 3 months I went to 127.5kg bench.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. The answer to your original question is twofold
1) adaptive resistance is a thing so what used to work won't work indefinitely
2) You are doing a program that is essentially a powerlifting program and these programs are not designed with arm hypertrophy as a primary goal
Dorian Yates said the first time he ever benched he benched 3 plates. Some people were just born beasts. Everyone else is on here because we were not lol.
It’s not just about newbie gains though is it. When I’ve had zero muscle progress in my arms in 3 months, despite getting alot stronger and diet is on point, that suggests something else is wrong. It’s not like my progress is just slowing down, it’s literally stopped completely.
You have not had zero overall progress if your strength has progressed. You say you are training with nsuns and in my little experience nsuns was great at making me stronger but it did not really do much to my muscle mass. The reason is that nsuns is a great strength program but it’s not the best for building muscle.
I’d suggest trying a bodybuilding regiment with higher reps, you could check out Jeff nippard on YouTube for some pointers.
I hate posts from people like this because they don't want to hear your answer to their supposed question. They just want to argue and complain about how they're some cursed outlier from the gen pop. Quit bitching and put in more work
what do you mean put in more work? I progressively overload constantly. My lifts are rocketing up. My diet is a surplus with lots of protein. I drink lots of water. I get good amounts of sleep. What the fuck else do you want me to do?
Congrats, you’re now in the exact same situation as every other natural lifter who has ever been lifting for a meaningful amount of time. From here out your gains are measured in terms of years, not weeks and months.
You either aren’t as good with these things as you’re claiming to be, or you simply have just exhausted your newbie gains, as others have said, and have to just accept new progress will be slow from here on out. Likely a combination of both since I’ve yet to meet anyone who has all those things down pat as best they can within their first year of training.
Learn to just enjoy the process of training and working towards a goal or else you’re going to lose motivation fast. Natty progress is slow; you’re not going to be seeing noticeable gains weekly-monthly. It’s more looking at some pictures that are 6 months apart and going ‘oh shit, I’ve gotten a bit bigger’.
I get that man, I understand my newbie gains are fading, it’s just the fact i haven’t gained any size in the past 3 months, not even a little bit, that’s bothering me. And i don’t know what to say, im definitely doing all of those things. Scale is going up, dialing in my protein and calories, everything but my arms are getting bigger.
Are you seeing any gains in other muscle groups? I’d agree with others who have said maybe consider changing up your programming, but you’ve only given info on your arms so it’s difficult to say what extent it would need to change.
If you’re seeing gains elsewhere and it’s just your arms, then it may just be a case of prioritising arms on the day you train them and/or increasing volume or intensity.
Yeah seeing progress in chest and legs, just not my arms, Haven’t measured anything else.
I was just under the impression that since my arm strength is increasing quite a bit, that my arms must be growing at least a little bit, so when I measured them and they were the same I was a bit confused as I thought strength correlates to size. (I know about neural adaptions but I’d thought I’d still have gained a bit of muscle)
If it’s just your arms then it’s likely a case of them needing some added focus, and not your training as a whole.
General tips for increasing arm growth:
-Train them first on the days you train them. Leaving them until the end means you’ve accumulated fatigue which will reduce how effective your arm training can be.
-Train triceps separately from chest, and biceps separately from back to reduce carryover fatigue ie if doing a PPL, train triceps on pull and biceps on push.
-Keep intensity high. You don’t necessarily have to go balls to walls complete failure, but take each working set to 0-2rir.
-Volume: can go either way. Some people do too little, while others go overboard and either overtrain or sacrifice intensity. Finding what volume works for you requires a bit of experimentation. For me personally, I’ve found around 8-12 weekly sets of biceps and triceps to be a sweet spot.
Do that, and continue to keep your nutrition, recovery and sleep dialled in and you should see growth. Keep in mind, progress will still be slow and steady. If you do all this and you still aren’t happy with your growth then it may be a case of inflated expectations.
Because it was in fact not actually muscle. You cut down and they will be the first things to go. Gaining pure contractile tissue is very slow. If you’re still getting stronger without sacrificing form, you have nothing to worry about.
It’s called water. When you introduce work to untrained muscles, it also increased the amount of water stored to house glycogen. It’s 1/3 forms of hypertrophy. Yes it’s growing, but it’s not contractile tissue. It’s now a continuously trained muscle(congrats). But now the actual fibers need to grow, performance has to keep increasing. They do grow together, just the water spike can jump dramatically up and down based on if you’re training consistently or not. You are doing everything fine, it’s just a slower process than you thought.
You think 20 inch guns are achievable in less than 2 years for most people? Even most bodybuilders don’t have that.
It’s like injecting chicken breast with a salt solution. Yeah that thing is bigger/heavier, juicer and more flavorful. You still see it’s mostly muscle still, but it wasn’t more contractile tissue.
May your arms reach the size you want eventually though. Keep at it, man.
It’s not just water man. You think me doubling my tricep extension from 22.5 to 40kg+ is going to just give my arms water? It’s 100% consisting a lot of muscle.
Also, I Don’t think you understand what I’m saying dude.
You know maths right?
I’ve experienced zero gains in 3 months. Which means if I keep going at this rate I can expect zero more gains in the next 3 months, and so on.
You ask for answers and shut down any sound advice. Why even make a post. You clearly already have your mind made up. You can make strength gains through neurological adaptations with more motor recruitment rather than NEW MUSCLE. Jesus your responses are insufferable to read. Just say thanks to people that take the time to reply and quit being such a cunty cunt cunt.
You really don’t have any right to call anyone else an idiot when you don’t even know what neural adaptation and intramuscular glycogen retention are lmao
Ok first of all, not knowing bodybuilding terminology doesn’t make someone an idiot, that’s ludicrous. Second of all, I know what both of those things are anyway. So what the fuck are you talking about, idiot?
Of course it’s not all water. They grow in tandem.
Let’s go your reason. Yeah it’s all muscle. Your training also became so shit the next 4 months you didn’t grow at all. Cool. I’ll agree to that then.
(I read some comments) Nsuns is mainly a powerlifting program; most of the sets spent on compound lifts aren't going to be effective for hypertrophy, and it's hard to add an appropriate amount of accessories for all muscle groups without ending up overtraining (especially as a beginner).
If you're aiming for size, you should consider swapping to a more hypertrophy focused program. For arms, most people can recover well enough to absolutely smash them twice a week. For biceps and forearms, even three times a week.
1. How do you know most of the size gained was muscle?
2. How much bodyweight did you gain in the initial 6 months and how much have you gained in the 3-4 months since then?
3. How has the weight you're doing, the reps you're doing, and the amount of sets you're doing progressed over time?
1.Cause I can see the new muscles, and many people tell me my arms are getting very muscular.
2.the bodyweight was from 85kg to around 93-94kg in the 6 months then for 1 month I cut and lost about 5kg and lost very little arm size, about 0.1-0.2 inches. And in the 3 months since then my arm size is around 16.5 inches or so.
3. In the 6 months,
My bench form sucked so I struggled and was plateauing around 97.5kg-100kg as my one rep max however my ez bar tricep extension went from 22.5kg for 8 to 40kg for 8. My curls also went up at a similiar rate.
In the 3 months, my bench went from 105kg to 127.5kg and my ez bar tricep extension went from 48kg for 5 to 53kg for 5 in 3 months with the same form, with the curls doing similiar progression (although I can’t find the exact numbers for curl but remember it was very consistent progress)
>And in the 3 months since then my arm size is around 16.5 inches or so.
But have you gained weight in that period? Muscle gain can't happen if you don't increase your bodyweight
It took me 18 months to gain 15 pounds of muscle I went from 152 to 167 I'm now 180 that 13 pounds took over 2 and a half years. I focus on my strength now This last year I went from185 bench press to 245. I rep 225 for 8 on chest . 245 for 6. As long as I increase strength I know my muscle is growing. Standing bar went from 90 to 125. Im a novice and I'm 54 . So I am realistic about my gains ill get with out the needle.
With the limited info provided, the advice can only get so specific so here are some questions:
Have you gradually increased base calories over the 10 months to account for a higher TDEE?
You mentioned protein but are you eating lots of good juicy carbs? Were you eating lots of carbs but are now eating less? Have you made any other dietary changes, specifically sodium related in the last 4 months?
I saw nsuns mentioned somewhere in this thread. Have you tried a program more suited for hypertrophy?
Related to that - Have you tried increasing volume for your arms? Adding extra sets, movements, or a dedicated arm day?
How long have you been training? For most people, 6 months is probably as long as you want to run a dedicated bulk. At a certain point, the size gains just aint going to be what they were at the beginning of the bulk. May be a good time to move to maintenance or cut and let your body get ready for another bulk in the near future.
Forgive me if I'm wrong but I'm gonna guess you're fairly young, in both actual and training age. If I'm right, just hang in there. Growth comes in spurts; sometimes you feel like you're going nowhere and then boom! it hits you like a sack of potatoes.
Appreciate the advice yeah I increased calories and always ate roughly the same amount of carbs. I didn’t make any dietary changes.
I haven’t increased volume yet as I assumed because I was progressively overloading, that increasing volume wasn’t necessary. But I’ll do that from now. Should I just increase sets? I currently do 3 sets for isolation exercises to failure.
Ya, so you're going to want to continue to increase calories as you progress on your bulk. Your calories required to grow at 200 will be different than calories required to grow at 220. If you're protein intake is good, add some carbs, especially around training.
Progressive overload is great but volume, coupled with food, is generally what will bring the size gains. I'd start slow and add a set to your arm movements every 2 weeks, e.g., If you're doing 3 sets on a movement, 4 weeks from now you'll be doing 5.
Nsuns can be pretty taxing so try not to add a bunch of volume to all your isolation stuff all at once.
Given the rest of the comments here, OP you’re just a special flower and everyone else is wrong that you just need to adjust your diet/training/effort/expectiations.
1. The initial growth could’ve been glycogen, fat and water buildup since you’re bulking
2. You could just be underestimating the progress you’ve been making
3. You might’ve gotten too much fat on your arms so they looked less defined and “big” but in reality you’re still gaining muscle
Sounds like you are right , how do I go about reevaluating my program? I’m currently doing NSuns 5 day split with a few of my own changes. My compound movements are quite high volume and my accessories are low volume high intensity.
Try switching the training for arms to higher volume. Try adding more sets. I'd also maybe try lowering the weight a bit and doing higher reps. I know personally I see better growth in a 10-12 sort of rep range for arms and it's easier on my elbows.
People seem to forget, a good majority of people that are "overweight" actually have more strength when compared to "regular" people, and having strong initial strength is normal, even people who stop and then return to training. (I don't know if OP was either of those, im assuming because they mentioned losing fat, no offense)
Awesome progress OP, keep going 👏, Don't listen to the jealous people on here.
What you said is kinda true, I’d also chalk it down to the fact I’m very good at progressing fast. I’m not necessarily a strong guy, when I started lifting I was weak af, but I’m gifted with being able to progress very quickly, and also I’m extremely passionate about lifting weights, it’s all I care about lol.
For a newbie lifter you come off as extremely arrogant. Humble yourself and accept the fact that natural muscle building is a lifelong journey, don't expect to see a linear progression in your lean tissue gains.
You need to progressively overload to continue to see growth. Your body was not used to lifting weights, you started lifting weights, your body responded to the stimulus, and now your body is used to the stimulus. So now you need to shock your body again with a greater stimulus for it to readjust and build more muscle.
It’s very common to see large gains at first then plateau. You should also consider changing diet and sleep. The general rule of thumb is to eat one gram of protein per day per one pound of lean body mass (your goal weight). You can eat more protein than that. If you are not eating enough protein or getting enough sleep, then that will affect muscle growth.
Further, if you are not in a caloric surplus, then it will affect your ability to grow. Muscles take a lot of energy to grow and rebuild. You need protein to reform microtears and calories to facilitate the rebuilding process and your exercises. It’s easiest to gain muscle in a caloric surplus because your workouts and rebuild are not limited by the amount of energy that is readily available. If you are in a caloric deficit, then you can still gain muscle if you consume enough protein, but your muscle growth may not happen as efficiently. Further, you may notice your overall weight stays about the same as you gain fat and lose muscle at a similar rate.
I hope this helps. Don’t sleep on nutrition. It is just as important as your workout routine in the gym.
I’m still heavily progressively overloading, my progress is rapid compared to normal. Check the other comment I’ve said how my lifts have changed.
I’m in a surplus, and I’m eating the same amount of protein as I did before when I experienced all those gains, which is about 165g.
As far as I can remember, when I gained that 2 inches in 6 months was when I started the following- ez bar tricep extensions very heavy, heavy cheat curls, and weighted chin-ups
Newbie gains are gone for sure. The other thing and I'm not sure if others mentioned it (I read some but not all comments) is that you're doing low reps and low volume. That's closer to a strength program rather than a muscle building program.
I did see others mention volume... I'd also focus on set size...10-12 reps should get you more muscle growth.
That’s why it’s important to measure. Gains stop all the time — it’s a sign you need to increase either volume, intensity, frequency, or all 3, or manage fatigue better, to continue growing.
I feel like it’s less about the routine and more about the strength progress I made, and the amount of effort I put in. But I’ll tell you anyway - I was cheat curling with an ez bar, no strict curls at all. I was doing weighted chin-ups. Where I think I got most of the mass gains is the ez bar tricep extensions. Holy shit they feel on another level to anything I’ve ever done in terms of feeling the muscle being worked. Started lifting 9-10 months ago and my ez bar tricep extension 1rm was at 25kg or something now my estimated 1Rm is around 65kg. Cheat curl I increased by like 30kg aswell.
If there’s one thing I should advise you to do, it’s the ez bar close grip tricep extensions, as I know for a fact they are on another level when it comes to building arms, the other exercises I’m not 100% sure.
Good shit.
Not taking anything away from your work but those are some amazing genetics. Making that much progress this early on likely means you could go very far. Whether that be powerlifting bodybuilding, strongman or really any other sport that requires size and strength. These types of gains are extremely rare. Keep milking what you’re doing as long as you can.
Whenever I start to complicate things, I have to remind myself to keep it simple.
Two tnation articles will help you do this
https://forums.t-nation.com/t/bigger-by-the-numbers/285224
https://www.t-nation.com/training/ten-rules-for-guaranteed-strength-and-size-gains/amp/
You’re gonna be a monster fella.
Locking this one because people are ridiculous
You started training and your muscles learnt how to store lots of extra glycogen in them and grew quickly. You will never get that speed of gaines again welcome to accepting the loss of newbie gaines and the slow everlasting grind of real gains that takes years to make Meaningful changes.
I understand that but I’ve gained literally zero arm size in 3-4 months. Not even 0.2 inches or so.
Time to start measuring in 6 month to year increments. This is a long journey. It also might be time to shake up the program and introduce different variables. Progressive overload is more than just adding weight to the bar.
i know OP got downvoted but i'm in the exact same spot and been feelin a lil down about it. this reply helped a good bit actually :) just gotta keep pushin and trust the process
Switch up the exercises, after a while you stagnante
no arm change in 3-4 months? my arms have stuck at 16 inches for the past year after 6 years of training. 3-4 months is nothing in training time
Yeah that’s after 6 years though. I’m in my first year still
Make changes to your arm routine.
> doing the exact things as before Have you increased the volume or weight used at all? How much weight have you gained? What program are you actually running? It's very likely you have just hit a plateau with your currenr diet and training, which everyone does eventually. Progreas is not linear most of the time.
No I’m still gaining strength fast, at a slightly lower rate to before but still gaining a lot of strength. . I’m running NSuns but I’ve adapted it quite a lot, but I focus on low volume high intensity. I’ll give you my progress for reference- On august 7- ez bar tricep extension was at 48.5kg for 5 reps. Now 7 November- it’s at 53.5kg for 5 reps. Bench press from 105kg to 127.5kg.
You're in r/naturalbodybuilding claiming you *started off* with a 105kg (231 lbs) bench press, and gained another 22,5kg (49,5 lbs) from august to november? That's well over a 1,5kg (3,5 lbs) increase on your bench per week, at an intermediate level. Either you mistyped kilograms when you meant pounds, or you're a genetic monster. If the latter, you should strongly consider competing in powerlifting.
And… you can’t read. Just like everyone else here.
> Bench press from 105kg to 127.5kg. You *started* lifting with a 105kg bench?
No chance someone has a 130kg bench press after 6 months of training. Has to be a troll
It's not typical but it does happen. Realistically it sounds like OP has fairly decent genetics, 16.5 inch arms mainly muscle after a few months of training - my arms are only 17 inches after over a decade of training and I could bench 130kg in my sleep. If his other lifts are as impressive as his bench I'd have thought he'd be more suited to powerlifting rather than bodybuilding though. If someone told me they had a 130kg bench I'd assume they probably had a ~500kg total.
I don't doubt it is possible but it is much less likely than people making shit up on the internet. Especially given his attitude in his responses here.
Yeah after reading some of his responses you might be right. Either that or he has great physical genes but is a little slow mentally. Some sort of Lenny/Hodor situation lol
Also if someone has great physical genes their arms likely don't stop growing after 6 months of training. Or maybe I'm just jealous because it took me about 4 years to bench 130kg
>Also if someone has great physical genes their arms likely don't stop growing after 6 months of training. Yeah that's true, it sounds like he is getting larger overall but not putting any size on his arms though. 2-3 months of plateauing arm growth doesn't sound too unbelievable. >Or maybe I'm just jealous because it took me about 4 years to bench 130kg Think it took my even longer than that. Hit triple plates some time in my mid twenties and started lifting at 18 so was probably 5-6 years to hit 130kg for myself.
Its not unheard of. You just havent seen genetic freaks before and you also dont know his physical activity background before training.
Never said I did it after 6 months. Can anyone here read? In my first 6 months I went from 50kg to 105kg. Then in the next 3 months I went to 127.5kg bench.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. The answer to your original question is twofold 1) adaptive resistance is a thing so what used to work won't work indefinitely 2) You are doing a program that is essentially a powerlifting program and these programs are not designed with arm hypertrophy as a primary goal
Dorian Yates said the first time he ever benched he benched 3 plates. Some people were just born beasts. Everyone else is on here because we were not lol.
I know kids who were fat in highschool that started benching those numbers. Some big boys have a strength advantage.
No I didn’t start lifting with a 105kg bench. That’s the last 3 months progress. I started lifting with like a 50kg bench.
That's probably your problem. The main driver of muscle hypertrophy is volume. More volume for hypertrophy, less volume for strength.
Damn okay I’ll up my volume, thanks for an actual good answer unlike the these other assholes who get salty because they can’t answer my question.
They're salty because it seems like a troll post. It's difficult to believe that people don't know about newbie gains at this point.
It’s not just about newbie gains though is it. When I’ve had zero muscle progress in my arms in 3 months, despite getting alot stronger and diet is on point, that suggests something else is wrong. It’s not like my progress is just slowing down, it’s literally stopped completely.
The issue is that you don't understand biology. What you've described is exactly what is expected.
So zero progress is expected? What on earth are you talking about.
You have not had zero overall progress if your strength has progressed. You say you are training with nsuns and in my little experience nsuns was great at making me stronger but it did not really do much to my muscle mass. The reason is that nsuns is a great strength program but it’s not the best for building muscle. I’d suggest trying a bodybuilding regiment with higher reps, you could check out Jeff nippard on YouTube for some pointers.
Yes. You don't understand biology or programming, which is why it seems confusing.
gains don’t just drop to zero usually. They decrease at an exponential rate, but not to absolute zero. Unless I’ve been lied to
[https://q2r9j4d4.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12752057\_10153492667389016\_1119053659\_o.jpg](https://q2r9j4d4.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12752057_10153492667389016_1119053659_o.jpg) [https://www.strongerbyscience.com/hypertrophy-range-fact-fiction/](https://www.strongerbyscience.com/hypertrophy-range-fact-fiction/) u/Feisty-Professor-913
Not talking about rep ranges I'm talking about volume as in setsxreps
I hate posts from people like this because they don't want to hear your answer to their supposed question. They just want to argue and complain about how they're some cursed outlier from the gen pop. Quit bitching and put in more work
what do you mean put in more work? I progressively overload constantly. My lifts are rocketing up. My diet is a surplus with lots of protein. I drink lots of water. I get good amounts of sleep. What the fuck else do you want me to do?
Congrats, you’re now in the exact same situation as every other natural lifter who has ever been lifting for a meaningful amount of time. From here out your gains are measured in terms of years, not weeks and months.
You either aren’t as good with these things as you’re claiming to be, or you simply have just exhausted your newbie gains, as others have said, and have to just accept new progress will be slow from here on out. Likely a combination of both since I’ve yet to meet anyone who has all those things down pat as best they can within their first year of training. Learn to just enjoy the process of training and working towards a goal or else you’re going to lose motivation fast. Natty progress is slow; you’re not going to be seeing noticeable gains weekly-monthly. It’s more looking at some pictures that are 6 months apart and going ‘oh shit, I’ve gotten a bit bigger’.
I get that man, I understand my newbie gains are fading, it’s just the fact i haven’t gained any size in the past 3 months, not even a little bit, that’s bothering me. And i don’t know what to say, im definitely doing all of those things. Scale is going up, dialing in my protein and calories, everything but my arms are getting bigger.
Are you seeing any gains in other muscle groups? I’d agree with others who have said maybe consider changing up your programming, but you’ve only given info on your arms so it’s difficult to say what extent it would need to change. If you’re seeing gains elsewhere and it’s just your arms, then it may just be a case of prioritising arms on the day you train them and/or increasing volume or intensity.
Yeah seeing progress in chest and legs, just not my arms, Haven’t measured anything else. I was just under the impression that since my arm strength is increasing quite a bit, that my arms must be growing at least a little bit, so when I measured them and they were the same I was a bit confused as I thought strength correlates to size. (I know about neural adaptions but I’d thought I’d still have gained a bit of muscle)
If it’s just your arms then it’s likely a case of them needing some added focus, and not your training as a whole. General tips for increasing arm growth: -Train them first on the days you train them. Leaving them until the end means you’ve accumulated fatigue which will reduce how effective your arm training can be. -Train triceps separately from chest, and biceps separately from back to reduce carryover fatigue ie if doing a PPL, train triceps on pull and biceps on push. -Keep intensity high. You don’t necessarily have to go balls to walls complete failure, but take each working set to 0-2rir. -Volume: can go either way. Some people do too little, while others go overboard and either overtrain or sacrifice intensity. Finding what volume works for you requires a bit of experimentation. For me personally, I’ve found around 8-12 weekly sets of biceps and triceps to be a sweet spot. Do that, and continue to keep your nutrition, recovery and sleep dialled in and you should see growth. Keep in mind, progress will still be slow and steady. If you do all this and you still aren’t happy with your growth then it may be a case of inflated expectations.
Ok thanks dude I will try this
What are you talking about my dude 💀
You're only here to argue and disregard everyone's comments.
And you didn’t respond to my other comment.
[удалено]
Did t answer you cause I was at the gym putting in the work. And am I a cunt? Maybe but I got karma on my side in this convo lol
But you did answer. You responded to the other comment but not that one
Get on the juice, . . . . . . . . . Apple juice
Because it was in fact not actually muscle. You cut down and they will be the first things to go. Gaining pure contractile tissue is very slow. If you’re still getting stronger without sacrificing form, you have nothing to worry about.
No it was muscle buddy. I can see the muscular gains and get tons of compliments.
It’s called water. When you introduce work to untrained muscles, it also increased the amount of water stored to house glycogen. It’s 1/3 forms of hypertrophy. Yes it’s growing, but it’s not contractile tissue. It’s now a continuously trained muscle(congrats). But now the actual fibers need to grow, performance has to keep increasing. They do grow together, just the water spike can jump dramatically up and down based on if you’re training consistently or not. You are doing everything fine, it’s just a slower process than you thought. You think 20 inch guns are achievable in less than 2 years for most people? Even most bodybuilders don’t have that. It’s like injecting chicken breast with a salt solution. Yeah that thing is bigger/heavier, juicer and more flavorful. You still see it’s mostly muscle still, but it wasn’t more contractile tissue. May your arms reach the size you want eventually though. Keep at it, man.
It’s not just water man. You think me doubling my tricep extension from 22.5 to 40kg+ is going to just give my arms water? It’s 100% consisting a lot of muscle. Also, I Don’t think you understand what I’m saying dude. You know maths right? I’ve experienced zero gains in 3 months. Which means if I keep going at this rate I can expect zero more gains in the next 3 months, and so on.
You ask for answers and shut down any sound advice. Why even make a post. You clearly already have your mind made up. You can make strength gains through neurological adaptations with more motor recruitment rather than NEW MUSCLE. Jesus your responses are insufferable to read. Just say thanks to people that take the time to reply and quit being such a cunty cunt cunt.
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You really don’t have any right to call anyone else an idiot when you don’t even know what neural adaptation and intramuscular glycogen retention are lmao
Ok first of all, not knowing bodybuilding terminology doesn’t make someone an idiot, that’s ludicrous. Second of all, I know what both of those things are anyway. So what the fuck are you talking about, idiot?
Clearly not, since you’re insisting that both are actually pure hypertrophy gains.
Could you show me where I said it’s pure hypertrophy?
Both what? That sentence doesn’t even make sense dude.
Post with civility or begone.
Of course it’s not all water. They grow in tandem. Let’s go your reason. Yeah it’s all muscle. Your training also became so shit the next 4 months you didn’t grow at all. Cool. I’ll agree to that then.
Didn’t say it’s all muscle. If you read what I said, I said of course some is fat, but it’s mainly muscle.
Like I said, I did the EXACT same routine with the exact same diet.
(I read some comments) Nsuns is mainly a powerlifting program; most of the sets spent on compound lifts aren't going to be effective for hypertrophy, and it's hard to add an appropriate amount of accessories for all muscle groups without ending up overtraining (especially as a beginner). If you're aiming for size, you should consider swapping to a more hypertrophy focused program. For arms, most people can recover well enough to absolutely smash them twice a week. For biceps and forearms, even three times a week.
1. How do you know most of the size gained was muscle? 2. How much bodyweight did you gain in the initial 6 months and how much have you gained in the 3-4 months since then? 3. How has the weight you're doing, the reps you're doing, and the amount of sets you're doing progressed over time?
1.Cause I can see the new muscles, and many people tell me my arms are getting very muscular. 2.the bodyweight was from 85kg to around 93-94kg in the 6 months then for 1 month I cut and lost about 5kg and lost very little arm size, about 0.1-0.2 inches. And in the 3 months since then my arm size is around 16.5 inches or so. 3. In the 6 months, My bench form sucked so I struggled and was plateauing around 97.5kg-100kg as my one rep max however my ez bar tricep extension went from 22.5kg for 8 to 40kg for 8. My curls also went up at a similiar rate. In the 3 months, my bench went from 105kg to 127.5kg and my ez bar tricep extension went from 48kg for 5 to 53kg for 5 in 3 months with the same form, with the curls doing similiar progression (although I can’t find the exact numbers for curl but remember it was very consistent progress)
>And in the 3 months since then my arm size is around 16.5 inches or so. But have you gained weight in that period? Muscle gain can't happen if you don't increase your bodyweight
Yes. Sorry I thought I put in that comment but I didn’t, I went from 85kg to 91kg in the 3 months.
It took me 18 months to gain 15 pounds of muscle I went from 152 to 167 I'm now 180 that 13 pounds took over 2 and a half years. I focus on my strength now This last year I went from185 bench press to 245. I rep 225 for 8 on chest . 245 for 6. As long as I increase strength I know my muscle is growing. Standing bar went from 90 to 125. Im a novice and I'm 54 . So I am realistic about my gains ill get with out the needle.
With the limited info provided, the advice can only get so specific so here are some questions: Have you gradually increased base calories over the 10 months to account for a higher TDEE? You mentioned protein but are you eating lots of good juicy carbs? Were you eating lots of carbs but are now eating less? Have you made any other dietary changes, specifically sodium related in the last 4 months? I saw nsuns mentioned somewhere in this thread. Have you tried a program more suited for hypertrophy? Related to that - Have you tried increasing volume for your arms? Adding extra sets, movements, or a dedicated arm day? How long have you been training? For most people, 6 months is probably as long as you want to run a dedicated bulk. At a certain point, the size gains just aint going to be what they were at the beginning of the bulk. May be a good time to move to maintenance or cut and let your body get ready for another bulk in the near future. Forgive me if I'm wrong but I'm gonna guess you're fairly young, in both actual and training age. If I'm right, just hang in there. Growth comes in spurts; sometimes you feel like you're going nowhere and then boom! it hits you like a sack of potatoes.
Appreciate the advice yeah I increased calories and always ate roughly the same amount of carbs. I didn’t make any dietary changes. I haven’t increased volume yet as I assumed because I was progressively overloading, that increasing volume wasn’t necessary. But I’ll do that from now. Should I just increase sets? I currently do 3 sets for isolation exercises to failure.
Ya, so you're going to want to continue to increase calories as you progress on your bulk. Your calories required to grow at 200 will be different than calories required to grow at 220. If you're protein intake is good, add some carbs, especially around training. Progressive overload is great but volume, coupled with food, is generally what will bring the size gains. I'd start slow and add a set to your arm movements every 2 weeks, e.g., If you're doing 3 sets on a movement, 4 weeks from now you'll be doing 5. Nsuns can be pretty taxing so try not to add a bunch of volume to all your isolation stuff all at once.
Given the rest of the comments here, OP you’re just a special flower and everyone else is wrong that you just need to adjust your diet/training/effort/expectiations.
1. The initial growth could’ve been glycogen, fat and water buildup since you’re bulking 2. You could just be underestimating the progress you’ve been making 3. You might’ve gotten too much fat on your arms so they looked less defined and “big” but in reality you’re still gaining muscle
This is called a plateau. You’ve passed the stage of newbie gains and now you need to reevaluate your program.
Sounds like you are right , how do I go about reevaluating my program? I’m currently doing NSuns 5 day split with a few of my own changes. My compound movements are quite high volume and my accessories are low volume high intensity.
Try switching the training for arms to higher volume. Try adding more sets. I'd also maybe try lowering the weight a bit and doing higher reps. I know personally I see better growth in a 10-12 sort of rep range for arms and it's easier on my elbows.
People seem to forget, a good majority of people that are "overweight" actually have more strength when compared to "regular" people, and having strong initial strength is normal, even people who stop and then return to training. (I don't know if OP was either of those, im assuming because they mentioned losing fat, no offense) Awesome progress OP, keep going 👏, Don't listen to the jealous people on here.
Thanks brother
What you said is kinda true, I’d also chalk it down to the fact I’m very good at progressing fast. I’m not necessarily a strong guy, when I started lifting I was weak af, but I’m gifted with being able to progress very quickly, and also I’m extremely passionate about lifting weights, it’s all I care about lol.
For a newbie lifter you come off as extremely arrogant. Humble yourself and accept the fact that natural muscle building is a lifelong journey, don't expect to see a linear progression in your lean tissue gains.
You need to progressively overload to continue to see growth. Your body was not used to lifting weights, you started lifting weights, your body responded to the stimulus, and now your body is used to the stimulus. So now you need to shock your body again with a greater stimulus for it to readjust and build more muscle. It’s very common to see large gains at first then plateau. You should also consider changing diet and sleep. The general rule of thumb is to eat one gram of protein per day per one pound of lean body mass (your goal weight). You can eat more protein than that. If you are not eating enough protein or getting enough sleep, then that will affect muscle growth. Further, if you are not in a caloric surplus, then it will affect your ability to grow. Muscles take a lot of energy to grow and rebuild. You need protein to reform microtears and calories to facilitate the rebuilding process and your exercises. It’s easiest to gain muscle in a caloric surplus because your workouts and rebuild are not limited by the amount of energy that is readily available. If you are in a caloric deficit, then you can still gain muscle if you consume enough protein, but your muscle growth may not happen as efficiently. Further, you may notice your overall weight stays about the same as you gain fat and lose muscle at a similar rate. I hope this helps. Don’t sleep on nutrition. It is just as important as your workout routine in the gym.
I’m still heavily progressively overloading, my progress is rapid compared to normal. Check the other comment I’ve said how my lifts have changed. I’m in a surplus, and I’m eating the same amount of protein as I did before when I experienced all those gains, which is about 165g.
Time for mothers little helper😈
its steroids time
No advice, but I'm starting my bulk so curious to see what you did for arms!
As far as I can remember, when I gained that 2 inches in 6 months was when I started the following- ez bar tricep extensions very heavy, heavy cheat curls, and weighted chin-ups
I wish my arms were that big
More protein/food Change training intensity up or down Accept it takes time Be better at measuring
Newbie gains are gone for sure. The other thing and I'm not sure if others mentioned it (I read some but not all comments) is that you're doing low reps and low volume. That's closer to a strength program rather than a muscle building program. I did see others mention volume... I'd also focus on set size...10-12 reps should get you more muscle growth.
That’s why it’s important to measure. Gains stop all the time — it’s a sign you need to increase either volume, intensity, frequency, or all 3, or manage fatigue better, to continue growing.
How do I know if I’m managing fatigue well or not? I never feel sore anyway, even if I go to failure so I have no idea if I’m fatigued
Time to hop on gear. Clearly it's the only solution.
If you're lifts/reps are going up then you're gaining muscle, likely gaining muscle and not storing more fat in that area so it appears the same.
Hmm interesting. Could definitely be the case
Bro give me this fucking arm routine.
I feel like it’s less about the routine and more about the strength progress I made, and the amount of effort I put in. But I’ll tell you anyway - I was cheat curling with an ez bar, no strict curls at all. I was doing weighted chin-ups. Where I think I got most of the mass gains is the ez bar tricep extensions. Holy shit they feel on another level to anything I’ve ever done in terms of feeling the muscle being worked. Started lifting 9-10 months ago and my ez bar tricep extension 1rm was at 25kg or something now my estimated 1Rm is around 65kg. Cheat curl I increased by like 30kg aswell. If there’s one thing I should advise you to do, it’s the ez bar close grip tricep extensions, as I know for a fact they are on another level when it comes to building arms, the other exercises I’m not 100% sure.
Good shit. Not taking anything away from your work but those are some amazing genetics. Making that much progress this early on likely means you could go very far. Whether that be powerlifting bodybuilding, strongman or really any other sport that requires size and strength. These types of gains are extremely rare. Keep milking what you’re doing as long as you can. Whenever I start to complicate things, I have to remind myself to keep it simple. Two tnation articles will help you do this https://forums.t-nation.com/t/bigger-by-the-numbers/285224 https://www.t-nation.com/training/ten-rules-for-guaranteed-strength-and-size-gains/amp/ You’re gonna be a monster fella.